Q: Is the brain equally creative no matter the environment? COVID-19 made many people work remotely. Is that a good or a bad thing in terms of creativity?

A: Great question. Some people may have brief creative flashes regardless of what else is going on. Typically, however, many things can interfere with the creative process, such as: exhaustion, dehydration, lack of a healthy lifestyle, depression, extreme stress, anger, abuse, mental or physical illness, grief, and so on. No doubt you have heard of “writer’s block,” when a person who is an author simply cannot put words on paper. Any type of creativity can be “blocked.” What it critical is that the individual knows how his or her brain works best when brainstorming and being creative.

When working with my coauthor for Music On the Brain or the 12-part Legends of the Wild series, I need some face-to-face contact when brainstorming creatively. Once we make a decision and divide up the work, I do my best writing in 4-hour blocks by myself. So does my coauthor. We get together periodically to update each other and compare notes and then go back to doing what we each do best in the type of environment that works best for each brain. Interestingly, I have always said that something different happens in my brain when I am brainstorming with another brain in real time. It’s like I can feel something different going on inside my brain. We do talk and text, but the level of creative brainstorming does not seem to be there. When I have expressed this in public, I’ve sensed that some are rolling their eyes (metaphorically if not literally).

Recently I found some information by Bruce H. Lipton, PhD, arguably the most knowledgeable person on the planet currently in the field of epigenetics. It validated that for me, face-to-face contact is important to me when I am doing specific types of creativity. Here is the gist:  Your brain sends out vibrations all the time and your thoughts affect your life and other people’s. They pick up these thoughts and get changed by then...it’s a field of vibrations...you can actually feel someone else’s thoughts when close to them.

Research on electromagnetic energy—fields of vibrations—is clear that each brain sends out ‘em’ energy and picks up on the ‘em’ energy that other brains send out. That’s the basis for you meeting someone and thinking he or she is on your same wavelength or that the person is from another planet.